by Sue Read

OVER the past three years at Crediton, 120 plastic bags asking for clothing donations for charities have arrived at one home at least.

This collection only began because the householder would chuck each one in a cupboard by the door which he cleared out not long ago and, for curiosity, began sorting the donation bags.

There were 22 for the British Heart Foundation, 19 for Breast Cancer, 11 for the Salvation Army and the NSPCC with other charities having sent more than one including the RNLI, Leukaemia, Little Treasure Children’s Trust, National Blind Children, Firefighters, Macmillan, Children’s Heart charity and another for children with cancer, The Clothing Carousel and then 11 more from charities that delivered one or two bags over that time.

“Another came this morning, bringing the total to 120,” he said. “What narks me is that these are companies collecting on behalf of the charities but if you read the small print on the back, some charities receive only £50 per ton, others least £70 per ton.

“Another bag said that for every ton of clothing collected, £100 was given to the NSPCC. I presume the companies doing the collecting keep the rest of the money.”

This man supports local charities special to him, in particular the Red Cross. “You know that anything you give them goes direct to refugees if it is not suitable for sale,” he commented.

He says he did put out a bag of clothing once. “It was not collected on the day listed on the bag. I rang the company. they said it would be collected. It wasn’t. so I put it in the Salvation Army bin at the super market,” he said.

He added that he has never seen bags with donations outside other houses and thinks “the whole thing is a complete con.”

One friend of his uses these bags as bin liners. He would be interested to know whether other people have had similar experiences.